Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes

Open Letter to the World from a Lost Student

If I were to tell you 18 years old, what would you think about first? Partying? University life? Independence? Maybe even the best period of your life? And probably the first step in adulthood? I have heard all of that, and even if I agree with most, I am sorry to announce that in no case I feel consider myself as an adult.

I am not going to deny it, I called my mother more than once in the evening asking her how long was I suppose to put my potatoes in the water or which temperature should I wash my clothes at (don’t worry, she still makes fun of me for it), but at the same time, I am being asked to make some choices for my future, and it genuinely frightens me. I take more than half an hour to choose what I want to eat on a menu, and now I should choose the job I want to practice for the rest of my life, or at least a major part of it?

I am 18 years old, my friend call me little baby because I am the youngest one, I have hundreds of hopes, and even more dreams, I want to experience every bit of life and try everything, yet, here I am trying to know what I want to do when I finish my degree.

Here is my confession to all of you grown ups, who might have forgotten how it was to be my age. I do not know exactly what I want to do in my life, but do not believe this is because I am lazy or trying to find the easiest option; I just do not know enough to make my decision yet. I mean, I want to experience the world, travel around the world, and try new things, crazy things. There is so many subjects that interest me, so many path that I want to take. The truth is, I am not ready to choose one job for the rest of my life just yet.

I know I still have some time to figure everything out, but it is becoming harder and harder to experience everything that I want, to help me choose the right path for me. To get a job, you almost always need experience, I get it, it costs time and money to train someone, but it is your turn to get us: we might not have all the experience you require, but it does not mean we are no good.

I am afraid that the world will crush me as soon as I get my degree, and I am not saying that you should hire just anybody; just let us prove our worth.

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One thought on “Open Letter to the World from a Lost Student”

Don’t worry, it happens at least once in our lives. It’s your first year at uni and everything is new to you and believe me I can see that you’re already doing a great job with this blog and whatnot. It really scare us a lot to decide about the next 20 years of out life. I have this friend, last month she talked to me about a life decision related to her course, and she is 2 years older than you. Basically she had doubts about confirming the path she want to take and in the end she decided to have a closer view on the other path just to make sure of her choice.
The opportunities are coming in the next year and I can see for sure that you will take it. You’re already getting experience from this blog, you learned to use tools to make a website (I guess), write an article about sports, entertainment, politics and even about yourself. These things counts a lot, believe me, and you can also use this knowledge to other things.
About new experiences, there are opportunities to study one semester in America and even in Asia, you just need to search a bit, I just don’t know how is the uni policies about this. You can also try to get a Brazilian citizenship and study abroad, but you better start to learn Portuguese right away.
This year abroad really help a lot about deciding my future, about my next steps as I was immersed in a different ambient. Only now I can say 75% sure of what I want to day after I graduate and I won’t be surprised if I change it completely.
Don’t worry or let yourself press yourself too much about it, it will come naturally with time.
Gros bisous